The ultimate hot-button issue?

I missed Kerry Healey's anti-syringe legalization press conference because I was hanging around the governor's office, watching Ali Noorani & co.
whack the governor for his proposal to turn state police into
immigration watchdogs. But here, courtesy of a Healey press release, is
a look at how the LG is framing the issue:

Healey said the exposure of dirty needles in Massachusetts
is a real and serious concern for parents across the
Commonwealth. Just last week, 10 year-old Roarke Myers of
Chelmsford was on a field trip with his fifth grade class from McCarthy
Middle School when he came upon two hypodermic needles lying in the
grass on the Boston Common. Fortunately, the children had been
warned by their parents that needles could be lying on the
ground. Roarke and his friends immediately notified their teacher.

“I am horrified that my son was put in danger because so many used
hypodermic needles are being carelessly discarded and are simply lying
around in the grass at our public parks,” said Roarke’s father, Bob.

Putting more needles on the streets also poses a threat to the general
public’s safety, Healey said, noting recent robberies in the Worcester
and Lowell areas where store clerks have been threatened with needles
allegedly containing diseases.

Two points worth highlighting here:

1. Healey is making her argument using anecdotal evidence, not solid
data. That's probably because, as I understand it, there's no proof
that syringe legalization--currently in place in forty-seven states!--actually
leads to the proliferation of discarded sharps in public spaces. (If
anyone can cite a study showing I'm wrong, please do.)

2. This anecdotal evidence is still emotionally compelling. To my mind,
nothing's freakier than a discarded sharp; I remember living above
someone who seemed to be an IV drug user a few years back, and giving
his used syringes a wide berth as I took out the trash. Creepy stuff.
The pro-legalization forces have logic on their side,
but they need to do their utmost to let the public know that
legalization won't lead to a slew of needles littering parks and
beaches.